


I'd Probably Still Adore Your With Your Hands Around My Neck

by PossiblyNobody



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clayleb Week (Critical Role), Exhibitionism, M/M, Pining, Team as Family, You can pry alive! Mollymauk from my cold dead hands, as a treat, but not very spicy just a little, just a little yearning but resolved quickly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26843176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PossiblyNobody/pseuds/PossiblyNobody
Summary: A week ago Caleb and Cadueceus kissed. Now they're in a bar and Not Speaking About It...But there's always body language.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Caduceus Clay/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	I'd Probably Still Adore Your With Your Hands Around My Neck

**Author's Note:**

> Song title is from 505 but imagine the lyrics went 'stop and wait a sec, I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my thigh' to make it more spicy ;) 
> 
> I will never stop writing one shots for Clayleb, they make me happy goddamnit.

The evening had started like any other. The Mighty Nein were in a bar, slowly and steadily getting drunk as hell. 

Beau and Yasha were having an (intensely awkward) conversation, with Beau attempting to flirt and Yasha attempting to keep things PG for her own reasons. 

Yasha tried to keep the conversation on the innocent side, talking about the gym, but Beau used it as a neat segue into talking about Yasha’s biceps, trailing a less-than-innocent hand along the aforementioned muscles. Yasha had flushed but not quite found the strength to pull away or change the topic of conversation, instead letting Beau trail her hands up and down her arms, resolutely staring at her drink with a pink face. 

Molly had been chatting up a random elf at the bar about 30 minutes into their arrival, leaving the group soon after with a flick of his wrist fluttering their fingers in an easy goodbye. 

Some tieflings have all the charm. 

Fjord was trying hard to leave a conversation with two half elves, who kept running their hands along where the ombre in his skin merged light and darker greens, greens that were slowly darkening in embarrassment. He looked pleased at the compliments but uncertain of the attention, which led to him talking with them both for longer than necessary, but fiddling with his cup every two seconds trying to find a polite way to leave. 

Meanwhile, Jester was glaring at the two elves, whilst also engaging Nott in a conversation about how ‘those two are totally secret agents who want to kill Fjord, Nott, we need to SAVE him’.

While not entirely believing Jester in the slightest, Nott looked ready to get up and ‘save’ him, if only for her own amusement. 

The Nott and Jester Detective Agency was ready and raring to go on their next case it seemed, the case of the Suspicious Elves (who should definitely stop talking to Fjord). 

Finally, there was Caleb and Caduceus, who were drinking quietly in each others’ company. 

They had commandeered part of the booth that was less likely to be disturbed, knowing of their friends' tendencies to run around a bar doing increasing reckless activities, and wanted to find a little corner. The booth itself that the Mighty Nein started in was in the corner of the tavern, and Caleb and Caduceus had their backs to the wall, being able to take in the whole bar - all amber lights and exposed brick, while also being able to talk without shouting. 

Not really looking for anything else in their drinking partner except a partner in drinking at the moment, the quiet had lasted for as long as the other members of their group had been in their own conversations, until, that is- 

A large, furred, hand landed on Caleb’s thigh. 

Not thinking too much of it, and his head a little fuzzy from the beers that their group had been drinking, Caleb looked up, blinking with wide eyes, at the firbolg to his right. 

Cadeuceus was looking at him with an indecipherable face, giving nothing away other than slight amusement and a cocked head. 

After a few moments of charged (charged? Why was it charged?) silence, Caleb felt the hand slowly squeeze down on his thigh. 

Gasping quietly, Caleb dropped his gaze down to the hand on his thigh, watching it compress and decompress around the blue fabric of his worn and faded jeans. 

Caleb let his vision fuzz a little and unfocus around the small rips around the knees and thighs, refocusing on the large fingers that teased the edge of one of the rips, unable to tear his eyes away from the small piece of skin that his friend was touching. 

He didn’t want to react and make it stop at first, the heat from his fingers seemed to have a direct line to a pleasant pit of Caleb’s stomach, and he had to actively concentrate on not making a noise in his drunken state. 

Three pints of beer down their local bar usually wouldn’t be enough to make Caleb feel light-headed, but there were other factors at play tonight, like his friend’s obscenely large hand on his leg, that made his thoughts feel more like white noise. 

For a while that’s all that happened - a strong and sure hand squeezing and releasing Caleb’s leg, with the smallest swipe of his thumb along the inner seam of his jeans inbetween passes. He could almost pretend it was innocent, if not for what happened next. 

Apparently not being content just to hold and release his thigh for more than a few minutes, that hand started to move infinitesimally up and down - moving more up than down with every heavy stroke, with still no words being exchanged. 

Unsure where this shift in situation arose from, Caleb lifted his head to meet his friend’s gaze again. 

The hand paused for a moment when he made eye contact. 

Looking up at Caduceas, his gaze was a lot heavier this time; eyelids a little more drooped, eyelashes sweeping his cheekbones, intent and staring at Caleb’s, who in response blushed furiously and dropped his line of sight back down to his hand again, which was beginning again to inch its way up Caleb’s jeans, this time decidedly closer to his hips than his knees, trailing a warm path that had Caleb squirming in his seat.

In lieu of verbally reacting and having to put a name to whatever they were doing in the back of this corner booth, hidden from all their friends, Caleb put a shaking hand on the larger man’s arm. 

It paused again in its ministrations, and Caleb could feel the questioning look aimed at him. 

But he didn’t want to stop what was going on, not really, he just didn’t know how to reciprocate, so he glided his hand across Caduceus’ thin wrist, pulling it slightly upwards and trying to convey how ‘ok’ he was with the proceedings and felt the hand tighten again, higher up this time than it was before. 

Now that he had implicit consent, Caduceus was less shy, letting his hand trail a sweeping path, hidden as they were by the corner of the booth they had found themselves in. With the rest of the Nein pretty much indisposed to looking in their direction, the hand crept higher, angling again towards the inner thigh and decidedly less innocent than previously. The more his hand curled towards Caleb’s inner thigh, the harder it was for him to pretend to be unaffected - internally cursing his pale skin, Caleb kept his head angled downwards. 

Leaning slightly down towards him, Caduceus fitted his left hand around the base of Caleb’s neck as if it belonged there after Caleb made room for him, sweeping a thumb up the column of his neck, making the smaller man shudder at the sensation.

His mouth falling open, Caleb chanced another look up at his taller companion. 

The intent on his face had gone intense, and Caleb felt exposed and hot all over, licking his lips and watching as the firbolg’s eyes dropped to his mouth to track the movement, he could feel the hand on his leg tighten to almost bruising before it lightened, and almost absentmindedly resumed its petting. 

Without dropping his eyes from Caleb’s face Caduceus smiled, eyes crinkling at the sides as he warmly considered his friend.

The two had been dancing around one another ever since they kissed once, just once, at a party a week ago (8 days, 12 hours, 32 minutes, and Caleb was very aware of the seconds ticking away).

The next morning nothing had been said, everything just resumed in the same way it always had between the two, and he thought that it was the taller man’s way of gently letting him down. 

Now? It seemed less likely. Maybe more like he was biding his time until they were alone(ish) again to bring it back up. Thank Melora he had, because Caleb wasn’t sure he would have had the guts. 

But there was no way that they could continue… whatever this was… so close to all of their friends.

Like an exposed nerve, Caleb sent a Message to his friend, softly saying ‘not here - yours?’

And then as an afterthought ‘- you can reply to this message’

The only hint that he received the Message was another slight curl in the other man’s lips, before he removed his hand entirely. 

Swaying forwards slightly before he caught himself, Caleb cursed inwardly, assuming his forwardness had put a stop to whatever game they were playing. 

Then his taller friend spoke, casually throwing an arm around the back of the booth so that he was enclosed under his friend’s arm. 

‘I’m feeling pretty beat, I might head on out - say Mr. Caleb, do you want to walk back with me?’ Caduceus casually spoke to the table at large, attracting the attention of where Jester and Nott had been plotting against the two women talking to Fjord. 

‘Yeah Cay-leb, you don’t want Deucie getting lost’ Jester half-sang, narrowing her eyes mischievously towards the two that had gotten a lot closer since she had last looked over. 

Eyes crinkling in a smile, the firbolg stood up and, towering a little over his friend, held a hand out to Caleb.

Feeling a little out of his depth, but looking forward to whatever the night held, he took it.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it! For now... 
> 
> I will always have more one-shot capacity for Caleb and Caduceus because they're Soft and I love it so let me know if that's what you want from me!


End file.
